Summary:NHL 17 introduces three new modes that connect you to the sport to live out your hockey fantasy. The new Draft Champions mode introduces the fantasy draft with fast rounds of superstar picks. For the first time in EA SPORTS NHL history, the World Cup of Hockey game mode lets you take to theNHL 17 introduces three new modes that connect you to the sport to live out your hockey fantasy. The new Draft Champions mode introduces the fantasy draft with fast rounds of superstar picks. For the first time in EA SPORTS NHL history, the World Cup of Hockey game mode lets you take to the ice on a global stage and compete with your national hockey heroes. The next generation of Be a GM introduces Franchise Mode where you answer directly to the owner and take total control of the team and the business, from fan concessions to promotional nights to the arena and city you compete in. NHL 17 also brings gameplay control over every inch of the ice. The new Net Battle system lets you fight for that critical space in front of the crease on offense and defense. Authentic goaltenders both look and play the part with true-to-life stances and smarter Reactionary Save Intelligence that lets goalies read and react with an athletic save or get big with the body to block the puck. Improved hitting, passing, puck pick-ups and skating let you own every zone and dozens of new goal celebrations bring the crowd to their feet making your biggest moments memorable. [Electronic Arts]…Expand

NHL 17 is a game that overwhelms you with variety of play as well as feedback aimed at making you a better, happier player. Outside of a collection of new game modes including Draft Champions, Franchise Mode and the World Cup of Hockey, everything here is largely the same. The game still looks great. Still feels great. And most importantly, it still plays great. Little refinements throughout yield small but noticeable improvements on the experience.

When compared to NHL 15, NHL 17 is miles ahead; when compared to NHL 16, it's incrementally better. That's the EA Sports way. There are some new features and improvements, but nothing mind-blowingly innovative. That's perfectly fine. There's a good hockey game at the core, and a lot of options on the periphery. That's all we ever wanted.

NHL 17 isn’t leaps and bounds better than last year’s NHL 16, but it’s evident upon even a glance that EA Sports has been listening to its fan base. The end result of this leaves glimmers of unrealized potential, but the realization that this is the best installment that the series has seen thus far. It’s been a rough trek for gamers, but NHL is back and it’s better than ever.

I love hockey, so I’ll play NHL 17 for most of this upcoming winter. But similar to my hometown Minnesota Wild, I have mixed feelings about the quality on display. EA Canada continues to make minor improvements across the board, yet the NHL series has yet to tap its true potential this generation. As any sports fan will tell you, there’s always next year.

It has been a fact for a couple of years now that EA Sports NHL series is in need of a big renovation. The graphics is starting to look dated, the physics isn't nearly as good as PES or FIFA and the AI is unbalanced – particularly the goalie part. NHL 17 is still a pretty decent game for the hockey fans, but it's hard to not feel a bit disappointed.

Franchise mode is awesome. The AI gameplay tweaks have done the trick. Career mode and create a team are huge, detailed features. This game isFranchise mode is awesome. The AI gameplay tweaks have done the trick. Career mode and create a team are huge, detailed features. This game is as close to perfect as you can come, in my opinion.…Expand

Nhl 17 is not an easy game to score. Truth is, if you have 16, this game feels alot like a patch. It's probably not worth $60, in that case.Nhl 17 is not an easy game to score. Truth is, if you have 16, this game feels alot like a patch. It's probably not worth $60, in that case. However, thats not necessarily the right way to score a game. NHL 17 is a really good game. The changes are all for the better, making this game better than last year. Recommended.…Expand

Same old same old. EA provides us with yet another roster update. The graphics and game mode selection is ofcourse a big plus and it is one ofSame old same old. EA provides us with yet another roster update. The graphics and game mode selection is ofcourse a big plus and it is one of the main reasons to play the game but when you actually start to play any mode, you do realize why people are losing their mind with the AI. It its absolutely ludacris.
It seems to me that the great minds in EA have decided that players want two kind of ouctome from a match, either you will do whatever you please and win or the AI steps in against you and you will be utterly ass raped by its supremacy. Even T1000 would agree its **** unfair. If you win, you do not feel joy. You feel bored af. If you lose, and make no mistake, you WILL lose, you are left with a agonizing pain in you soul.

The **** is really **** up when you play online. Sadly, EA sports follows the trend in modern online gaming where everyone must be pleased and offered a chance to be a champ (re-purchase in mind naturally).
Once you get to a certain level, the game allows you to have only few fair match ups. Otherwise brace yourself to be annihilated even by players new to the game with absolutely ridiculous advantages provided by the AI. You might find yourself shooting over 50 shots with 1-2 goals and follow in disbelief as the roughed up opponent skates in and demolishes your lead with 3 shots from the blue line. Other options for AI generated losing streaks are that your team will suffer greatly from the fatique effect and you can just watch and wave as the opponent has turbo mode on with unlimited momentum. If you end up against the same opponent after a week, you might crush him/her 11-0 as you should. Again, the two options. No happy mediums here !

All in all a good overall experience for hockey fans. Definitely not worth the money but hey, do we have a choice? RIP 2k.…Expand

This game is awesome .... garbage. I don't understand why they are not concentrating on real issues in this game, instead of this addingThis game is awesome .... garbage. I don't understand why they are not concentrating on real issues in this game, instead of this adding useless mode's like building your own custom area which nobody cares about. There are many glitches even from NHL 12 to be honest, like goal to the left top corner from blue line, cross crease goals and more. Puck is now behave even more like tennis ball, worse than in 16. Soundtrack has about 3 songs which are good, other's are terrible. They are asking 60$ for now rosters and soundtrack, really? Too bad fifa gets frostbite, nhl not. It desperatively need it, otherwise it's just NHL 16 as should be, for 60$, terrible. I'm really missing 2K at this point who can take leadership as they did with basketball.…Expand

This game does everything it can to make you frustrated and annoyed. EA has tried to impress us by adding the standard game modes that theyThis game does everything it can to make you frustrated and annoyed. EA has tried to impress us by adding the standard game modes that they removed, but have continuously failed us in gameplay. Here are a few facets that make the game unbearable

1. Passing. For one, if there is a player remotely close to the pass then it's getting broken up. It doesn't matter if the player has their back to the puck, is skating the other way and not looking, he will be able to blindly poke the puck away. If you do manage to have a wide open man, passes will either go to the wrong player (player wide open up ice, yet it goes to the player on the right side, etc) or go about 15 feet away from the designated player. One-timers on two on ones just go passed the intended recipient on a whiffed pass.

2. Faceoffs. If you win an o-zone faceoff, you have about .1 seconds to make a decision before the puck is stripped from you and sent elsewhere. Seriously, I sometimes intentionally lose O-Zone faceoffs because I have a better chance of getting the puck from the defense than I do from my player.

3. Offsides. Nothing like completely blowing past a player with no intention of passing, only to have your computer step offsides for no reason. No reason, the player will just think you're moving faster and ruin your whole rush. Then, if you happen to figure out the passing long enough to create some offensive zone pressure, your passes back to the point will surely be offside. The player has no knowledge of where the blue line is, intended passes that could be received in front of the line are intentionally received behind the line and all your pressure is lost. I wish there were a "hold RB" to hold the line option because some times I field the puck 2 inches before the blue line OR skate the wrong way with the puck is infuriatingly high.

4. I swear the game picks who wins beforehand. When starting a game, it is clear in the first period that you will either be able to poke check every puck away or their team will be invincible and every poke check will lead to a tripping penalty. They also still haven't figured out how to make the sticks stop going through the boards. GTA 5 had an entire city of AI people going about their days with thousands of interactions; EA can't figure out how to make a stick stop on the boards.

Skating - Pick a path that a player would never actually take, that's the path they will take in NHL 17. Left handed shot on the right circle? Why not circle on your backhand instead of hitting the one timer or wrister on the forehand. The AI is so flat-footed that they are still while a player blows past. This is, however, the first year I've seen Dylan Larkin be able to outskate Roman Polak, congrats EA. It feels like skating in mud, edgework in none existant in this game.

The AI. Sometimes you'll look at the screen, and there will be 4 AI players in a bunch at the blue line. I'm just not sure what hockey games they've watched when developing the AI, but it is beyond stupid, it also takes penalties if you're not taking enough yourself.

There is just so much about hockey that they're missing, so many intricacies that could make the game into a amazing experience. Boards plays, O-zone setups (there's not time to do anything), big transitions after turnovers, that are reduced to nothing. You could spend 30 seconds in their zone firing away just for them to launch one from the blue line that the goalie spasm-blocks upward, hits off his back, and then goes in. Sure, happens in real life, not in every game, though...

EA, please just sit down with Hockey fans and take notes as they play the game. It is so frustrating that this is the only game created for Xbox One, if there was a competator like 2k maybe we could get defensement that know what offsides is. Unbelievably bad, great cover though!…Expand

Still Garbage, AI on both sides are still awful and interact terribly. A majority of goals scored in any given game are still usually prettyStill Garbage, AI on both sides are still awful and interact terribly. A majority of goals scored in any given game are still usually pretty ugly and the same AI interaction problems that occurred in past games still exist. Even in front battles can't prevent your AI defenseman from leaving the slot man open every single possession. Wingers for some reason still can't cover the point even when your strategies are set to place wingers tight on point, etc. All around complete garbage game and if it were any other franchise making this game with the amount of let downs and bogus small in game addictions to cover for their pathetic game this series would have been stopped way earlier. But hey, why stop making garbage when people pay $60 for it every year.…Expand

EA might as well scrap this series based on the amount of effort they put into it, which is zero.

Persistent problems from 10 years ago areEA might as well scrap this series based on the amount of effort they put into it, which is zero.

Persistent problems from 10 years ago are still present. The AI is still utterly atrocious at everything, the player models look fine from afar but any sort of close up shows how outdated the models are. Passing and skating are still broken and frustrating. The commentary is outdated, stale, and not very good in general.

EA has done nothing to innovate this series since 2012 when Sean Ramjagsingh took over. They have constantly removed features and modes, only to bring them back as "new."

It is evident the only mode EA cares about is HUT. Every other mode lags dangerously behind in innovation, modernization, and features. Franchise mode is dull. The addition of budgets a year or two back is only there to slow players down, rather than create a meaningful feature. The player morale feature is improved, but still inefficient.

Star players don't feel like star players. Everyone plays and feels the same. They also look the same 70% of the time. While stars have their actual faces, it seems EA gave everyone else one of four different generic ones.

For a game that so often points out when the players have done something wrong and tries to show players how to be better, EA doesn't take its own advice. The skating and puck mechanics are some of the worst I've ever seen in gaming. Players routinely get "stuck in the mud" while skating, blown past on defense as they attempt a 3-point turn to engage the puck carrier, or randomly lose the puck because reasons.

Goaltending is still a coin flip. On higher difficulties, the CPU goalie will stop everything in a three-block radius. On lower difficulties, however, the CPU goalie is useless. Shots with no business going in routinely find their way home.

The higher difficulties swing the advantage to the CPU in artificial difficulty. They play more aggressively while your players sulk, miss shots, and your goalie becomes swiss cheese.

Players still bounce off one another while checking at times. As in, the players don't even recognize the check but just skate into one another. It's problems like this that show how little EA cares.

There isn't a sports series out there that is trying as hard to disappoint their player base as EA is with its NHL series.

It's time for a change in leadership. EA needs to step back and seriously revisit its commitment to the series. NHL 17 is wholly unacceptable as a modern AAA sports title.…Expand